L’Obs magazine a well know publication from Paris France, were in contact to commission a map for their up coming September edition.

The brief was to create a map of Paris with a mixture of names of streets, famous buildings and name of neighborhoods for L’Obs magazine.

L’Obs Magazine Paris Map drawing was illustrated to scale because is was important to place 10 locations (the famous power sites) on the map for readers to be able to navigate the map and be a practical, as well as retain its illustrative look and feel, which was a important feature of the map.

I initially sketched the whole of Paris, with important and key road drawn into the map. On this occasion I choose to draw the map at a large scale, larger then I have drawn a map before at A2 size, this allowed me to drawn in a lot more detail in terms of the loads and streets. I then drew the 10 keys sites of Paris which, included the, Eiffel Tower, Champs-Elysées, Louvre Notre Dame, Cathedral Sacré-Coeur, Arc de Triomphe. As well as key Paris neighborhoods.

The map feathered a numbered key, which was relevant to the text. These numbered keys were the locations of institutions and well know Paris powerhouses which was important and relevant to the written text of the article.

Shortlist Magazine Adidas Running

Shortlist magazine the free circular for London, were interested in commissioning map illustrations for the up coming Adidas Boost Trainer feature. The artwork had to embody a running theme to promote the new trainer.

The illustrated maps were representations of London and Manchester, since the many of the locations of each of the maps were in some cases long distances from each other; it required me to illustrate the routes in a non literal way. The campaign was to create 5 running maps, which plan out running routes of different areas of London, as well as a running route map for Manchester.

The areas of London which were selected for the London running maps included, Westminster, and the green parks from Regents Park, Hyde Park, Green Park and St James back and a return back to Regents park once again. Lambeth was chosen as the pop culture map, starting at the Vaults at Waterloo, through to The Cinema museum and on the the Brixton Village, and The O2 Brixton academy. The London City architectural running map, covered some of the architectural gems of London, from the Lloyds building to the shard and the new sky Garden and its breath taking interior and breath taking views of London. Hackney was chosen as the arty running map, with many of the now famous grafitti artists large mural pieces of work which you can find around much of Hackney Area.

Shortlist Magazine Oxford St Map

Shortlist magazine the free London circular, commissioned a map illustration for the up coming Oxford Street shopping feature. The artwork had to embody a tropical summer theme that would fit around their existing digital approach by the agency organizing the Oxford Street shopping experience. A large number of Participating brands, which consist of Mens, Women’s Cosmetic, and Food establishments. The large number of shops being featured, required some thought and organisation. The best approach to represent the many shops was by having a numbered key represented by a dot numbers located on Oxford Street.

The main element of the Shortlist magazine map is Oxford Street, and that’s Oxford Street would need to be the focus of the illustration. There are also other roads coming off Oxford street which are named, so that customers can use it to work out where along Oxford Street they are situated when looking at the map. It was an import feature to have the map be functional, and to be realistic to a certain degree.

Bordeaux Wine Regions Map

Town and Country magazine commissioned a map for their Bordeaux wine regions article. This particular map, the client asked for a hand drawn detailed map with intricate boarders which were needed to hold the text information for the different wine producing regions of Bordeaux.

The map had a simple color pallet which I was informed to take into consideration, the art director asked to create a red wine stain shape in this aesthetic, which was a new for me to execute, It required working with ink colours, to recreate a wine stain shape. The rest of the Colour Pallet was black with reds/burgundy’s to allude to the color of wine.

The map also had specific icons to be illustrated for the map, these were, a compass, the Landes Forest icon, Cognac District icon and Atlantic Ocean icon. I created a few different iterations of these icons, in the end, the icons. The different wine regions within the wine stain were assigned numbers from 1 to 20 and placed within the wine stain, which are easily identified from the break down of the information provided within the 2 information boxes, the left bank and the right bank boxes.

The perfume Society London Map Drawing

The perfumes Society were looking to commission a map of London for an event they were holding. The commission involved creating a detailed map of London, focusing on East London, Central and parts of West London. The important details involved creating well know places and location, which people could recognise. The map should be illustrative and practical at the same time with anyone looking at it, being able to use it to navigate or plan with.

The London illustrated map, has hand drawn detailed land marks such as, The Shard, The Gherkin, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, The London Eye. Different areas are highlighted with hand drawn typography which are crafted to meld between the land marks and objects with in the map.

The Map also contained a key of shopping locations and department stores within the main well known shopping areas of London with those details printed on the back of the map. The map is also foldable, which was an important factor. The map was part of a boxed gift set given to guests, along with the map; you also received samples of perfumes.

Dubai Food Festival Map

Dubai Food Festival (DFF) (6-28th February 2015) celebrates the city’s growing reputation as the culinary capital of the Middle East with a month-long calendar of delicious and diverse dining experiences. From international street food, home-grown successes, food carnivals, farmer’s markets, pop-ups, celebrity-hosted events and live entertainment, the Dubai Food Festival serves up the very best the city has to offer resident and visiting foodies.

Beach Canteen

A hugely successfully element of the 2014 festival, the DFF Beach Canteen returns for the length of the festival (8-28th February) at Kite Beach, with a focus on featuring homegrown restaurant. From standout chefs, local bands and DJs, children’s programming and beach sports.

Food/Film Nights (Working title)

This is a unique film festival concept which focuses on food and its involvement in the script. From the educational and thought provoking documentaries to the short films created by real life foodies to the fictional films that celebrate food.

Food Truck Lunchtime Pop-up Market

With the new license regulations for Food Trucks in the city allowing these SMEs to establish under set criteria, DFF is creating a pop-up concept where a food truck convoy will move throughout the city providing tasting menu on wheels for the cities business community.

Food Flotilla

Engaging the floating restaurants on the Dubai creek, DFF brings celebrity chefs to the water with a ticketed event that sees several tour boats with menus crafted by these celebrated chefs for a one-off evening of exceptional food with exceptional company.

Emirati Food Event

The cornerstone to every food festival is the local food experience, and this event will provide this crucial element. There are more than 96 Emirati dishes, but many people only know a few.

Al Quoz Street Night

Al Quoz Street Night event is moving into the Dubai Food Festival in 2015, bringing with it the taste of Street Food in Dubai whilst retaining the underground urban feel this event embodies. With approximately 20 outlets showcasing the multicultural flavors that make up Dubai’s street food offering,

Masala Food Fair

A free two-day Indian Food Fair which combines food and entertainment for the community will be the festivals focus on the cuisine from the largest demographic base in the UAE. From street food to high profile chefs, live competitions and Bollywood foodies

Vanity Fair Magazine France, got in touch to commission a map illustration for their new fashion magazine article. The brief would be to create the fashion capital cities that represents the cities of New York and London, the second one the cities of Paris and Milan to illustrate what is the most emblematic of each city, some elements that are essential to the brief and must be in :

New York : Skyscrapers, Statue of Liberty, a yellow cab, Union Station, Building from Soho

London : Big Ben, The London Eye, the Euro Star, The Gherkin, The Shard

Paris : the Eiffel tower, a tramway train, The Arc De Triumph

Milan : Doumo, Cova patisserie shop, a Vespa, maybe a Trattoria…

There is always a means of transport in each city to indicate the journey between the different destinations The idea of the article is the red dominant colour of the fashion shows. The illustrations would be mainly in black and white, only with some colour spots

Chinese Food Fanatics Editorial

Map illustration containing the specific Chinese food found in their specific Chinese provincial regions, as well as well know landmarks in China, the food is priority and the landmarks were added as part of the brief to add more visual interest to the map, while at the same time trying not to over crowd the map with too much information.

The Chinese food references were photographic images, which were to be composed with the hand drawn map and surrounding countries of China, which are are also a culinary influences on China. The photographic images of the food were placed over the hand drawn map of China, once the images were in position, the Provincial names were hand crafted and drawn in to the spaces in between the images of the food, and the border lines of the provinces, so that they can be easily identified by the reader of the map.

Top 10 landmarks in China include, Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai Lama Temple in Beijing Chi Lin Nunnery in Hong Kong Potala Palace in Lhasa Xi’an City Wall in Xi’an Shanghai World Financial Center in Shanghai Big Buddha in Hong Kong Temple of Heaven in Beijing Summer Palace in Beijing Great Wall at Mutianyu in Beijing

East London Things and Places

This is a private commission for a client, who wished to create a gift illustration for a close friend. The brief was to create a illustration with particular aspects of the East End of London, in particular Shoreditch. This included Land marks such as the Hackney empire, The Truman Brewery on Brick Lane as well as the Geffrye Museum, which are all close by to each other.

East London has become a pretty hipster part of London town, that being said, the illustration contains, fixie bikes and Vintage racer bikes, Craft beer references and coffee references all of which can all be found in East London

Private Commissions are great to work on, they mean alot more to the client, as they are alot more considered and thoughtful, since the commission might be given away as a gift.